Zuckerberg, forgetting about Facebook's Portal: 'We definitely don't want a society where there's a camera in everyone's living room'

• Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says he wouldn't want to have a society where there is "a camera in everyone's living room," seeming to momentarily forget about his company's Portal, which is a camera meant for video chatting in the home.
• Zuckerberg makes the comment in a discussion with a Harvard Law professor as part of a series of conversations around technology and society he plans to have throughout the year.
• Zuckerberg concedes that Portal is a camera in people's living rooms but says it would be encrypted.

Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of Facebook Inc.

Tony Avelar | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Even Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg seems to get why consumers might find its Portal creepy.

In the first of a series of discussions on technology of society Zuckerberg had as part of his annual personal challenge, Zuckerberg appeared to unwittingly concede the key criticism of Facebook's new video calling device.

While talking about his desire to build more end-to-end encryption in Facebook's services, Zuckerberg said, "I basically think that if you want to talk in metaphors, messaging is like people's living room, and we definitely don't want a society where there's a camera in everyone's living room."

Harvard Law professor Jonathan Zittrain, who hosted the discussion, pointed out that Facebook's Portal is quite literally a camera in people's living rooms.

Laughing, Zuckerberg said, "That is I guess… yeah. Although that would be encrypted."

When Facebook debuted its Portal in November, the tech community immediately raised privacy concerns about giving Facebook a window into the home after a series of privacy stumbles had been revealed over the past year.

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Watch: Facebook Portal review — great for video calls but lacks compelling features